School Is Out, and Nutrition Takes a Hike

Tuesday

Camp food is just one of the summertime nutrition challenges for parents these days.

As my 9-year-old daughter began summer day camp last week, we talked about swimming rules, sunscreen and ... cheese fries.

It was at summer camp a few years ago that she first experienced the culinary joy of cheese fries, which can pack 800 or more calories in a serving. Her camp is typical of those around the country: days packed with archery, swimming and adventure climbing; menus packed with soft drinks, burgers, chicken nuggets and, once a week, cheese fries.

Camp food is just one of the summertime nutrition challenges for parents these days. While childhood health advocates often blame schools for poor nutrition and a lack of physical activity, the problem often gets worse in the summer. Last year, The American Journal of Public Health published a provocative study showing that schools may be taking too much of the blame for the childhood obesity epidemic.

Data from kindergarteners and first graders found that body mass index increased two to three times as fast in summer as during the regular school year. Minority children were especially vulnerable, as were children who were already overweight.

Notably, even children who were too thin and needed to gain weight appeared to have better eating habits during the school year. They actually gained more weight while in school and less in the summer.

The data are far from conclusive; they are from 1998-99, the only time federal education officials gathered seasonal data on schoolchildren, said a co-author of the study, Douglas B. Downey, professor of sociology at Ohio State. Similar statistics were not collected for older children.

Even so, the findings suggest that while school nutrition may not always be ideal, children — whether overweight or underweight — may benefit from the structured nature of the school year, which includes scheduled meals, snacks and recess.

“Schools likely provide a more structured day for most children,” Dr. Downey said. “Kids’ access to food is limited to lunch and snack, and they usually receive at least some consistent exercise. When children are at home in the summer they have freer access to food, and while there’s warmer weather, there may be less consistent exercise.”

For parents, the data suggest a need to be extra vigilant about what their children eat during the summer. But that is easier said than done. While many school districts have nutritionists involved in lunch planning, relatively few summer camp programs do. Camps tend to focus on food safety — making sure the food doesn’t spoil in the hot sun. And parents who want to pack lunches struggle with the same problem, often resorting to packaged products that will hold up in the hot weather.

“Camp food is terrible,” said Susan B. Roberts, director of the energy metabolism laboratory at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “The problem is that they are doing what is easiest — the lowest common denominator for what kids like, and on top of that usually it has to be not something that goes bad and is no work to prepare.”

Despite the food, children who go to camp at least have the advantage of daily organized physical activity. Those who do not, particularly those in low-income families, often spend summers at home with little supervision or structure to their day. They end up watching television or playing video games and grazing on food all day.

“During the year, television viewing habits are more limited because of school and homework, but in summer, all bets are off,” said Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston. “They are lying around all day long with little supervision, watching TV and playing video games. The mythical childhood of summer at the beach is becoming increasingly rare, certainly for children in the inner city.”

Weight gain aside, even brief exposure to certain foods can shape tastes and preferences for the rest of the year. Not only do children eat more when watching television, for instance, but they are also exposed to numerous commercials for sugar- and fat-laden foods and snacks.

“They’re being exposed to a huge number of food commercials for highest-calorie lowest-quality products,” Dr. Ludwig said. “Those effects have been demonstrated to alter food choice.”

Parents concerned about those choices can take a lesson from the schools. Ask baby sitters to create more structure in the summer day, schedule lunches and snacks at regular times when possible and encourage children to take a “recess” outdoors a few times a day. And parents of children in day camp still have control over breakfast and dinner and all meals on weekends.

“There’s not a lot of data on children’s summertime activities,” said Paul von Hippel, a former Ohio State researcher who was the lead author of last year’s study. “But I think what our data show is that it’s good to keep kids busy during the summer — just busy enough so they’re not eating all the time.”

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